Rutgers adds Nee to staff

Back when Danny Nee's basketball head coaching career was still in its infancy in the early 1970s at Brick Township High School, he would routinely drive to Rutgers to watch Tom Young conduct practice.

Little did he know then that more than 30 years later, Piscataway would be the latest stop on a long, distinguished career.

Nee, who boasts 26 years of experience as a Division 1 college head coach, was named Rutgers' director of player development Wednesday by head coach Fred Hill - one of four new additions to Hill's staff.

Oliver Winterbone, a 2005 Rutgers graduate who once served as the team's head basketball manager, was named director of basketball operations, while Dennis Gregory, who previously held that position, was made senior director of basketball operations.

In addition, Matt Bloom was named basketball operations coordinator.

"Being an ex-coach in New Jersey and a guy from Brooklyn, I feel like I'm coming home," said Nee. "I'm very comfortable here. It's like I've come full circle."

Nee, a high school teammate of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's (then Lew Alcindor) at Power Memorial in New York City, was the head coach at Red Bank for the 1972-73 season before moving on to Brick from 1973-76. He recorded 410 victories as the head coach at Ohio U., Nebraska, Robert Morris and Duquesne, spending the past two years as a scout for the Utah Jazz.

"He's a guy with an unbelievable amount of experience," Hill said. "So he's going to be a great asset for our players. For me, he's a guy I can bounce ideas off of. His experience is invaluable."

Though Nee will have restrictions on what he can do from a coaching perspective, he said Hill hopes to use him "as a sounding board and a mentor for the assistant coaches."

"I want to fit in any way I can," said Nee.

Nee was briefly a candidate for the Rutgers head job in 1998 that eventually went to Kevin Bannon.

Winterbone, from Fair Haven, spent the past three seasons as director of operations/video coordinator at the University of Virginia.

"He's a Jersey guy and a Rutgers alum. It was time to bring him home," Hill said of Winterbone's hire.